Infosys red-lights BMTC on poor service and upkeep

BENGALURU: Software giant Infosys has decided to end its 20-year relationship with public transport utility BMTC upset over its lack of understanding of commuter needs and neglect towards the upkeep of its buses.

The decision to snap the ties fol lowed a feedback from employees, some of whom have used strong words to disapprove of the quality of maintenance and cleanliness in BMTC buses. Infosys had hired 170 buses to pick and drop employees from different city points and many of them did two trips each in the morning and evening hours.

The software firm said it has been replacing the BMTC buses with private buses and is currently left with about 20 BMTC buses. “We are returning them as we don't want to engage a service our employees are not happy with,“ Infosys Executive Vice President Ramadas Kamath told ET.

The software giant always promoted BMTC and encouraged employees to use public transport. “We found BMTC crew members to be very courteous and we treated them like members of the Infosys family.But the same levels of understanding of business needs were lacking at the higher levels of the manage ment,“ said Kamath. “If this is the plight of Infosys employees, you can imagine what the general public must be going through,“ he added.

Infosys employs about 30,000 people at its Electronics City campus and three fourths of its employees used public transport. The firm had hired BMTC's non-AC buses, Pushpak and Eco. “You cannot travel in these buses during the rains. We have even had the experience of the buses breaking down in the middle,“ said an employee. “The seating in the BMTC Eco buses look like they are designed for children and for not adults,“ he added.

Kamath recalled the days when BMTC was a model transporter. “BMTC set standards for transport services under IAS officers Upendra Tripathy and PS Kharola and Infosys was its proud brand ambassador. I used to request other states to benchmark their transport services against BMTC standards,“ he said.

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy , when contacted, said he is not aware of the issues between Infosys and BMTC.

“If Infosys can tell me what the problem is, I can ask the BMTC to provide best of the buses available in its fleet to Infosys,“ he said. The BMTC, he said, will be buying new buses, some of which could be deployed to the company , he added.

According to Ashwin Mahesh, the initiator of Big10 bus reforms at BMTC, the utility's problems ran much deeper as it is operating with half the number of buses needed for Bengaluru. “The gover nment should first set up an independent transport regulator so that service standards are set, regardless of an operator being public or private.“